Affirmative Action, Wealth Inequality: 3 Articles I’ve Been Reading This Week

From Vox: White Women Benefit Most From Affirmative Action–And Are Among Its Fiercest Opponents

“In general, women today are more educated and make up more of the workforce than ever before, in part because of affirmative action policies. Indeed, from the tech industry to publishing, diversity has emerged as an overwhelming increase in the presence of white women, not necessarily people of color.

Incidentally, over the years, white women have become some of affirmative action’s most ardent opponents.”

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From The Atlantic: The Secret Shame of Middle-Class Americans Living Paycheck to Paycheck

“I know what it is like to have to juggle creditors to make it through a week. I know what it is like to have to swallow my pride and constantly dun people to pay me so that I can pay others. I know what it is like to have liens slapped on me and to have my bank account levied by creditors.

I know what it is like to be down to my last $5—literally—while I wait for a paycheck to arrive, and I know what it is like to subsist for days on a diet of eggs. I know what it is like to dread going to the mailbox, because there will always be new bills to pay but seldom a check with which to pay them.

I know what it is like to have to tell my daughter that I didn’t know if I would be able to pay for her wedding; it all depended on whether something good happened. And I know what it is like to have to borrow money from my adult daughters because my wife and I ran out of heating oil.

You wouldn’t know any of that to look at me.”

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From Esquire: 4 Women With Very Different Incomes Open Up About The Lives They Can Afford

“Over her lifetime, the average American woman can expect to earn hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a man with similar credentials and employment. For women of color, that pay gap looks more like a chasm. And while motherhood is often cited as the primary reason for lower earnings over the course of a career, it doesn’t explain why, as occupational segregation falls, women still only make $0.79 for every dollar men do.

The same financial pressures men face only increase when a Y-chromosome is taken out of the equation.”

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones, MSW, LLMSW

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